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The Gamers Developer Conference (GDC) 2008 began yesterday, and it's been interesting to see some of the announcements that have come out of the conference so far. As you may have noticed, gaming (which was already huge) is creeping into our every day web activities more and more, on a more complex level. And by "more complex" I mean that it's more integrated.
Today, we hear of Avatar Reality's upcoming launch of an MMVW called Blue Mars. Those at GDC 2008 get a sneak preview of the virtual world, and you Mashable readers get a bit of a sneak preview as well. The graphics are probably the most noteworthy aspect of Blue Mars, especially at this stage of the game's life, but equally as important are the platform options Avatar Reality will be extending to third-party developers for creating games of their own.
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From the looks of it, Blue Mars will be along the lines of Second Life or Sony Home, where individuals can create realistic representations of things that could occur in real life (shopping, home decor). It could be right up the alley for retailers and brands that would like additional options for integrated online marketing campaigns. I'll admit, I'll be anxiously awaiting the arrival of Blue Mars so I can try it out comparatively, though it won't be available to the public until after Spore is scheduled to actually be released. We'll see how much free time I have left after that! ;)
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